An aligning and feeding apparatus (medicine feeder) that conveys, for example, tablets (medicines) of the same shape while aligning them in a row is known, which includes a turntable configured to rotate at a constant speed; a fixed outer wall disposed along an outer periphery of the turntable; a fixed straightening guide configured to guide objects on an upper surface of the turntable outward in a radial direction, the objects being carried and brought into contact with the straightening guide; a lead-out portion passing through the outer wall and configured to lead the objects on the turntable to the outside, the objects being carried over the upper surface of the turntable along the outer wall; a width regulating means for regulating the width of the “led-out” objects in a gap between inner and outer opposite members of the lead-out portion; and a height regulating member configured to regulate the height of the “led-out” objects in front of the lead-out portion (see, e.g., PTL 1).
An alignment-disk rotation type medicine feeder is also known, which is capable of accommodating more medicines by using a cylindrical cassette, instead of a flat disk-like turntable such as that described above (see, e.g., PTLs 2 and 3), The alignment-disk rotation type medicine feeder includes a driving unit secured to, and lined up with, a drawer shelf of a medicine packaging machine for the purpose of power feeding and control; and a medicine cassette configured to be removable from the driving unit for facilitating a medicine adding operation. This medicine feeder is configured to randomly hold many medicines in the intermittently or continuously operate as necessary to discharge the medicines one by one from the medicine cassette.
The medicine cassette of the alignment-disk rotation type medicine feeder includes a container portion configured to accommodate many solid medicines; an alignment disk disposed in the container portion in an axially rotatable state; a plurality of blade-like partition walls large in number and formed on an outer periphery of the alignment disk, the partition walls being configured to evenly divide an annular gap between the container portion and the alignment disk into many compartments; and a divider plate configured to partition off a part of the annular gap, the divider plate being disposed opposite a drop port formed in part of a portion of a bottom of the container portion, the portion forming a lower surface of the annular gap. The medicine cassette is configured such that medicines placed in the compartments are dropped one by one from the drop port by axial rotation of the alignment disk rotationally driven by the driving unit.
There is a medicine feeder of another type which uses a so-called flanged rotating container as a rotating body. The flanged rotating container is recessed downward into a bowl-like inverted conical shape in the center thereof and flanged at an upper edge thereof (see, e.g., PTL 4). Specifically, this medicine feeder includes an axially rotatable rotating container recessed at a center portion thereof to randomly hold solid medicines and flanged at an edge portion thereof to allow the medicines to be arranged in an arc shape; a fixed outer wall disposed along an outer periphery of the rotating container; a straightening guide member configured to guide the medicines in the rotating container from the center portion to the edge portion; a lead-out portion passing through the outer wall and configured to lead the medicines (“led-out” objects) from the edge portion to the outside, the medicines being carried over an upper surface of the edge portion of the rotating container along the outer wall; a height regulating member configured to regulate the height of the “led-out” objects in front of the lead-out portion; and a width regulating member formed by a swinging member on an outer side of inner and outer opposite members of the lead-out portion, the width regulating member being configured to regulate the width of the “led-out” objects by swinging to expand or contract the width of a space on the upper surface of the edge portion of the rotating container; and a feeding mechanism formed by a belt feeding mechanism on an inner side of the inner and outer opposite members, extending to reach the inside of the edge portion of the rotating container, and configured to hold the “led-out” objects between itself and the width regulating member to feed them faster than the speed of the edge portion during rotation of the rotating container.
Of conventional, similar-size medicine feeders of a so-called disk rotation type using a turntable with a flat upper surface as a rotating foody (see, e.g., PTL 1), a so-called alignment-disk rotation type using an alignment disk with partition walls arranged side by side along the outer periphery as a rotating body (see, e.g., PTLs 2 and 3), and a so-called flange rotation type using a flanged rotating container as a rotating body (see, e.g., PTL 4), the disk rotation type is smallest, the alignment-disk rotation type is largest, and the flange rotation type is between the two, in terms of capacity to accommodate medicines. With a large capacity, the medicine feeder is easy to use even when operated to receive medicines only during the non-operation period and not to receive them during successive feeding. With a small capacity, however, the medicine feeder is easier to use when operated in such a manner that medicines are added thereto on an as needed basis.
To accommodate various types of medicines, many medicine feeders of various capacities are arranged in the or the like where medicines cannot be easily put into individual feeders on an as needed basis, the alignment-disk rotation type medicine feeders (see, e.g., PTLs 2 and 3), which are of a practical type, have often been used.
By adding a tablet cutting mechanism (cutter mechanism) to such a medicine feeder, a tablet splitting apparatus is produced, which is capable not only of automatically feeding tablets in a successive and sequential manner, but also of automatically performing a splitting operation which involves cutting each tablet being fed, or already fed, in the center into two halves. The alignment-disk rotation type, which is a proven type in automatic dispensing, is often used in combination with tablet splitting apparatuses of any including a mountable tablet splitting apparatus to be included in a medicine packaging machine (see, e.g., PTL 5), a standalone tablet splitting apparatus (see, e.g., PTLs 6 and 7), and tablet splitting apparatuses having tablet cutting mechanisms with different structures (see, e.g., PTLs 5 to 7).